Each year that begins is a new opportunity—“a new year, a new struggle,” as Saint Josemaria liked to say—to renew our eagerness to listen to God who speaks to us in our daily circumstances, to clean what clouds our vision and makes it hard for us to see Jesus. Let us strive to go forward in novitate sensus (Rom 12:2), with a new outlook, with a serene and joyful struggle, in order to get to know and love Christ better, and to welcome the gift of an ever new life: His life in us.

We don’t rely on our strength alone but, above all, on God’s grace and the help of the others. The entire Church on earth and in heaven sustains us—in a true communion of saints—in our renewed and hope-filled determination to continue forward. We also support the others by our prayer and our struggle, filling our heart with faces and names. During this year, we will also seek in a special way the intercession of the future blessed Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri.

I end by uniting myself to the desires Saint Josemaria expressed at the end of 1958: “I hope that in the year that is about to begin you will be very happy and very faithful.”